


Catalyst

by MakeTheMoon



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Alcohol, Drinking, Drug Use, M/M, Pining, Shotgunning, Weed, dirty 30, first kiss?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-30 22:39:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12118731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MakeTheMoon/pseuds/MakeTheMoon
Summary: "...all he can think about is the feeling of Rhett’s lips on his, pulling Rhett’s breath and smoke into his lungs, surrounding himself in Rhett more than he ever has before."





	Catalyst

It’s the wrap party’s wrap party, at Grace’s house; the real wrap party, with the whole cast and crew, was the day before at a fancy venue with expensive food and alcohol. Link likes this better - small, in a house, cheap alcohol to get drunk fast. It’s late, he’s not sure exactly how late, but late enough that there’s hardly anyone left, late enough that’s it’s probably actually too early.   
  
Rhett is slumped on the couch, laying flat - legs straight out under the coffee table, butt nearly over the edge of the couch, neck and head bent awkwardly against the back cushions. Link is a couple feet to his right, but his toes are touching Rhett’s shins from underneath, never parallel, always connecting somewhere. They’re both verging on sleep, drunk and warm. The music is much lower than it was just 30 minutes ago. The coffee table is covered in bottles and glasses, red Solo cups half filled with room-temperature drinks. The lights are off in this room, but bright and lively in the kitchen where everyone who’s left had gathered.   
  
Grace comes in from the kitchen, giggles, says “hey, looks like we got a couple stragglers in here!”   
  
More people follow her in, Hannah and Mamrie first (always here, they’ll always be the last to leave a Grace party). Link scoots over closer to Rhett to let someone else sit on the couch, and he does a quick head-count - 8 left altogether. Most of them are squished onto the oversized couch, there’s a couple sitting together in the recliner, and Grace plants herself on the floor by everyone’s feet.   
  
Link hears a shuffle and then the tell-tale flick of a lighter. He’s surprised for a second, before he notices what and who is lighting up. That makes more sense.   
  
The joint gets passed around to every single person in the room before it gets to Rhett, who puts a hand up and shakes his head, a small chuckle at the offer. It’s offered to Link, then, and he entertains the thought for a fleeting moment before remembering  _ I’ve got kids and a wife, and I’ve never done this before, and I’m 37, and it’s too late (in life and in the night) _ . He raises a hand as well, passing up the offer.   
  
5 minutes later, someone else hands the shortened joint to Rhett, and Rhett gently takes it, with no hesitation, and Link wonders if he had regretted passing it up the first time by how quickly he accepts it. He’s surprised at Rhett, really, Rhett who normally thinks things through and is less likely to do reckless things in the spur of the moment than Link.   
  
Link watches as Rhett brings it to his mouth, his large fingers nearly covering the whole rest of the joint, barely enough real estate to even put it to his lips. Rhett will likely be the last one to take a drag. He watches as Rhett’s chest expands, hears his long, slow inhale, watches his eyes drop closed from their already half-closed position.   
  
Rhett lowers his hand, and everything appears to be in slow motion with Rhett tonight - he slowly reaches forward (barely, he’s so long his arms nearly reach the coffee table anyway) to drop the roach into the ashtray, then slowly leans back, small smile on his lips and the corners of his eyes and Link suddenly remembers a story of Rhett in college, coming home one night talking about getting high with his new friends, then another time just a few months ago - this isn’t Rhett’s first time smoking, Link realizes. He feels jealous - jealous that he wasn’t there for a milestone in Rhett’s life. He wonders if there are others that he doesn’t know about.   
  
When Link has put the pieces together he looks up to see Rhett looking back at him, eyes squinted, chin raised, smile small. It’s his asking face.   
  
Link leans forward on a whim, feeling brave. He can hear the low murmur of conversation, a couple sharp laughs breaking through the quiet room - no one is paying attention. It might as well just be the two of them.   
  
Link thinks  _ maybe this is a mistake _ just before the moment of contact, but that just spurs him on more, always up for a challenge.   
  
Their lips barely touch, mostly just the corners of their mouths since they’re both so slumped and lazy that neither of them turned to face the other, just shifted their heads. Link feels mostly beard, which is weird and new but not unpleasant, and underneath that he feels soft, warm, wet skin and the only weird part about that is that he can tell Rhett must have licked his lips before taking his drag.   
  
Rhett pushes forward a little more, then slowly, very slowly, begins to exhale. Link can feel his breath from his nose before he feels it from his mouth, then there’s a new sensation on Link’s lips, then there’s smoke in his mouth. He opens his eyes, wants to see this. The smoke is pouring from Rhett’s nose and mouth, escaping into the room from around their lips where they aren’t connected; a slow stream, like milk or clouds or fog - definitely more like fog. Link feels heat glowing low in his belly.   
  
Rhett’s eyes are closed now, and Link is thankful for that because he may have choked if he had to look into those bright eyes. He’s trying to concentrate on inhaling carefully, not coughing, not ruining the moment, but all he can think about is the feeling of Rhett’s lips on his, pulling Rhett’s breath and smoke into his lungs, surrounding himself in Rhett more than he ever has before.   
  
It’s way too quickly that Rhett is pulling away, eyes slitting open, looking down at Link through his lashes - Link loves Rhett’s eyelashes.   
  
Link huffs a little, a small cough, which makes Rhett smile even bigger - not mocking, just happy. Link leans up slowly, carefully putting his hand on Rhett’s bicep, propping himself up with his other hand on the couch, and slots his mouth to Rhett’s again, more purposefully than Rhett had. Rhett’s mouth opens and he licks his own lip which places his tongue into Link’s open mouth, and Link exhales his breath, emptying the smoke in his lungs into Rhett.   
  
As Rhett inhales, he licks into Link’s mouth again, meeting Link’s tongue briefly -  _ on purpose _ , Link thinks. He exhales the smoke back out through his nose and Link is sad for a moment that that’s the end - they can’t keep doing this without the catalyst.   
  
Link leans back, hand still on Rhett’s arm, and he lays his temple on the back of the couch, facing Rhett. Rhett’s eyes are closed again now, but he’s still smiling, and he laughs quietly through his nose, which makes Link laugh through  _ his _ nose, which makes Rhett laugh even louder, enough to draw attention from their friends.   
  
“What are you two talking about up there? You sharing secrets?” Grace asks, looking up at them from the floor.   
  
“They already know all of each other’s secrets, now they’re attempting to perfect telepathy,” Mamrie says.   
  
It’s not untrue, they have tried to read each other’s minds before but the closest they can get is that they know at least fifty percent of the time they’re thinking about what food they’re going to eat next. Link’s always a bit disappointed that they can’t get further than that.   
  
“Exactly - he’s telling me he wants nachos right now,” Rhett says, voice low, gravelly from the smoke, and then Link’s stomach grumbles, and everyone laughs, including Link.   
  
Link notices that his hand has migrated from Rhett’s bicep to his belly, resting over the buttons of his shirt, his pinky touching the button on his jeans. He’s still turned towards Rhett, and Rhett is still sprawled out into the middle of the room, and now Link’s leg is falling asleep from the awkward twist he’s gotten his body into.   
  
He doesn’t want to move. He has to, but he doesn’t want to, and his murmur as he moves his arm gives him away. Rhett lifts the arm closest to Link and touches him on the chest with the back of his hand gently, pushes his thigh into Link’s and for a moment Link can see himself on top of Rhett, right here, straddling his thighs. He coughs, inhales deeply, pushing the thought from his mind. He sits up and looks around the room, finds what he’s pretty sure is his water bottle and takes a few sips.   
  
He can feel the heat of Rhett’s leg on his, and it makes swallowing the water more difficult than it should be and he feels like he’s panting - tries to slow his breathing.   
  
“Who wants to order pizza?” asks the guy in the recliner - he wishes he could remember names.   
  
Link turns to offer his water to Rhett, but Rhett’s eyes are closed and his head has dropped to the side a little, so instead Link says “I think it’s time for us to go”.   
  
After a small murmur of “aw’s” and “no’s” from the few people in the room, Link grabs his phone and pulls up Uber. He gets up to grab his coat, then sits back down gently and touches Rhett’s shoulder.   
  
Rhett looks at him almost immediately, and Link holds up his phone showing that they have 3 minutes to get their shit together and get out the door.   
  
Link stands again and Rhett groans, kicking the floor with his heel in protest. Link grabs his hand and pulls, which doesn’t really do much of anything other than shift Rhett to the right, still fully laying down.   
  
“Come on, man. We gotta go. Gotta get you home,” Link doesn’t sound convincing, so he switches tactics, “we can drive through somewhere. McDonald’s. Get some breakfast?” Rhett’s eyes open and he smiles, showing his teeth - Link loves it when he smiles that wide - and sits up. “Gotcha, come ‘ere,” and Link tugs on his hand once more, finally getting Rhett to the edge of the couch, knees coming up. He sways a bit, then stands, using Link’s hand and shoulder as an anchor.   
  
Their Uber is here, he can see through the window, so they get to the door sluggishly, Rhett using Link the whole way just to stand straight, and they say their goodbyes.   
  
  
  
Rhett is first to be dropped off, egg McMuffin in hand, already halfway back to sleep. Link walks him to his front door, helps him enter his lock’s code, then ushers him inside.   
  
He wants to lean up, kiss him again, for real, make his own secret milestone, but instead he just switches on the lamp and says “at least get on the couch, don’t fall asleep at the kitchen table, okay?” Rhett nods, holding up his bag of food, making his way to the living room.   
  
“Love you, Link. Thank you for taking care of me,” Rhett whisper-shouts from around the corner. He hears a small giggle, then hears Rhett sit on the couch.   
  
“Love you, too, Bo. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”   
  
Link leaves, locking the door behind him, and gets back into the car to make his way home.   
  
  
  
He gets into bed next to Christy, suddenly self-conscious and worried that he smells like weed, but he doesn’t brush his teeth, doesn’t shower, doesn’t take off his undershirt, wants to smell the smoke and alcohol and Rhett for as long as he can. If he has to explain anything in the morning, at least he’ll be sober and relatively more clear-headed.   
  
He sees the room light up, grabs his phone before he can hear the vibration to turn on Do Not Disturb, but pauses when he sees a Snapchat from Rhett. It’s a video of Rhett’s face, so close it’s just an eye and his nose lit by the TV, speaking in his excited voice, his “young Rhett” voice, the voice Link loves, “I had such a good time tonight. It was so fun. We need to go to more parties, Link.”   
  
Link snaps a picture of himself with his eyes closed, barely visible in the dark room and types “Go to bed, dork. Talk in the AM”.   
  
He puts his phone face down and rolls back over. His sleep is broken, waking every few minutes, never able to settle. He tells himself it’s the beer. He knows it’s not.   



End file.
